You Shall Know Our Velocity

Rating:
Summary: Here's why you might want to give this book a shot:
Review:
So this is the story of Will and Hand, two youngish men indirectly mourning the accidental death of their friend Jack by taking a philanthropic whirlwind tour around the globe. Will, a handyman, has received $88,000 in royalties for the use of his likeness on light-bulb packaging, but the windfall makes him deeply uncomfortable. So he conceives a plan, along with Hand, to buy around-the-world tickets (one price, any number of stops, but you have to keep heading in one direction), stopping off at far-flung locations to hand off cash to the deserving poor. It seems like a good idea at the time.

Immediately, problems arise. The tickets don't allow for whims; you have to plan your entire trip before leaving home. So that idea gets scrapped. Then it turns out that many of the third-world countries demand visas, or shots, and Will has no time for any of this; it has to be right now, this week, for reasons even he doesn't fully understand. Eventually, with a heavily modified itinerary, Will and Hand get off the ground, heading to Senegal with a fat stack of traveler's checks. More problems: flights are delayed, flights are cancelled. Reservations clerks are bewildered, then annoyed at the scruffy men who want to book a flight but don't know where to. Delays are everywhere, and with only a week to make it around the world, every second spent waiting in a hotel room or an airport feels even more grossly wasteful.

The giving doesn't go so well, either. Initially, Will and Hand make a rule that every impulse, however wacky, must be followed up on: taping money to livestock, leaving flowers and cash on a kitchen table. But nothing seems to go as planned; if they try to tape cash to a goat, people inevitably walk by and interrupt. Entering homes when people are away feels creepy and weird. And even when they do manage to hand off cash, it feels tainted and bad; the recipients grin slyly and vanish, as though gleeful at having pulled one over on the rich Americans, or else they stare at the money unhappily (never mind effusive thanks in foreign tongues). The idealized notion of charity - an ephemeral but profound connection between two people, generosity meeting gratitude halfway - never happens. Hand starts acting like a typical American a-hole, speaking loudly in pidgin English for no discernible reason. Nothing is the way Will had imagined it; only when he begins to examine his motivations for the trip, and what he'd expected to gain, does Will start to understand the connections between this wild goose chase and his long-delayed mourning over his lost friend.

Dave Eggers is much the same here as he was in his fictionalized memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: wildly uneven, often funny but frequently off-key, sometimes trying way too hard to be clever. Narrator Will sounds uncannily similar to Narrator Dave from A.H.W.O.S.G., full of the same vicious self-interrogation and loopy stream-of-consciousness ramblings; it's interesting, but difficult to read, and the narrative similarities make it tough to separate Will from Eggers. The character development is understated to the point of nonexistence; it's never explained how an obviously intelligent and articulate (though prone to babbling) guy has ended up installing light bulbs for a living. We bounce from childhood memories of the three friends to the present day; Will's only defining characteristic is grief, expressed in wild rants, fugue-like flashback episodes, and strange behavior. His sorrow feels genuine, but it's expressed in a rambling, haphazard fashion that renders it abstract and difficult to understand. Having said all this, do I recommend the book? Well ... yes. And Eggers is right about one thing: charity is sometimes ugly, self-important hubris dressed in well-intentioned clothing. But give it a shot. For a tighter, funnier, more compact novel I want to recommend another book: The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. Perez is a kind of anti-Eggers -- and in The Losers' Club the writing is compact, more focused (saying more in 20 pages than what seems to take Eggers 200), with short chapters and much less self-absorption -- all while covering many of the same themes of mortality and guilt -- while always being entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: two different versions?...eh?
Review: I was surprised to learn that the version of the story I have just finished is different to what everyone else read. There was no interruption by Hand and apparently I got another 60-something pages! Am I then right in thinking that I have just completed an inferior version of the story? Or a better one? It isn't hard to see that there is much room for improvement. I found the paper thin plot to be the most enjoyable thing about the book. I enjoyed the authors wry take on world travel and his evocation of the mundanity of waiting constantly for something to happen. By going out and "making it happen" the two protagonists discover their own pointlessness in the grand scheme of things. In this sense, the book is an over-extended drawn out joke. But, as with AHWOSG, potential is marred by a modish, self conciously hip style with unnecessary narrative devices which ultimately detract from one's enjoyment of the book. True, there are some beautiful descriptions (champagne snowball being the standout) but I found Jack's presence throughout the book wholly unnecessary as an excuse for Will's sudden "spontaneity". I enjoyed most of all looking at the protagonists through the eyes of the people they meet on their travels, from airport staff to prostitutes. Will and Hand's adventures are hollow and unfulfilling: paradoxically that is the most satisfying thing about this book. Perhaps the third version will be better...

Rating:
Summary: More than I'd expected
Review: I'd been resisting this book for quite some time. I'd read a Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and, like many, reacted to it with both awe and annoyance and couldn't quite put my finger on exactly why. As time passed, the awe faded and the annoyance remained and when You Shall Know Our Velocity came around, I felt no desire to read it. Especially since what I knew of the plot - 2 guys fly around the world giving away $32,000 - bored me instantly. I guess it seemed, for some reason, like a sort of . . . small plot. If that makes sense.

But a few days back I was in a bit of a literary rut, figured what the hell, and checked this book out. I'm glad I did, since I enjoyed this book a lot more than I'd expected to. Yes, the plot's alternately silly and trivial. And yes, the narrator(s) sound a hell of a lot like Dave Eggers. But ultimately, that made little difference. The plot is just a frame that Eggers hangs a surprisingly nuanced study of relationships and grief upon.

Maybe it's because I happen to be smack dab in the middle of his protagonists' demographic - 20-something, white, male. And because I've dealt with the morphing and ending of long-term friendships in the recent past. Whatever the reason, I found the depiction of the relationship between Will and Hand (both versions) to be, yes, pretty moving. That starnge mixture of annoyance and love that developes over the years is just right on perfect, and, for me, makes the whole book worth my while.

Not to say this is a perfect book. Will does go on. And on and on. And some of his neuroses become, after a while, a little wearing. Ditto some of the mental tangents he takes, some of the imaginary dialogues. But even in the midst of some lengthy digression, Eggers is still capable of dropping phrases, images, metaphors of striking originality and, yes, staggering genius. It's worth putting up with the frustration in order to get to these.

All in all, I'm profoundly glad that I forced myself to give this book a chance.

Rating:
Summary: You Shall Know How Totally Awesome This Book Is
Review: Why should you read this book? How bout these apples:
1.Cool title
2.Cool cover
3.$38,000 changes hands over 351 pages--which is roughly $100 a page
4.Frequent usage of profanity, but in an intelligent, creative way, although sometimes just in a profane way
5.Here I am rock you like a hurricane
6.Humor
7.Tragedy
8.Metaphor
9.Just, honestly, I mean, like Dave Eggers tears it up, straight up yo
10.You shall know it
11.You shall read it
If you are between the ages of, say, 15 and 30, and have as yet not read this book, I don't know what's the matter with you, and pity you. If you are not between those ages, I understand, but still pity you, and not because you're too old or too young, because all ages are cool and good, and I would not pity you anymore if you read You Shall Know Our Velocity. Come on, people! Get with it.

Rating:
Summary: Rock you like a hurricane
Review: This is not the best book I've read in the past year. In fact, this wouldn't even be the best book I've read this week. But, if you are an egomaniacal, self-centered jack-ass - like myself, than you're guaranteed to get a kick out of this book. Don't bother paying attention to the "inner-dialogs", and just enjoy this book for what it is: A wickedly funny, crass account of one young man's journey with his irrepressibly chauvinistic best friend.

Rating:
Summary: Here's why you might want to give this book a shot:
Review: So this is the story of Will and Hand, two youngish men indirectly mourning the accidental death of their friend Jack by taking a philanthropic whirlwind tour around the globe. Will, a handyman, has received $88,000 in royalties for the use of his likeness on light-bulb packaging, but the windfall makes him deeply uncomfortable. So he conceives a plan, along with Hand, to buy around-the-world tickets (one price, any number of stops, but you have to keep heading in one direction), stopping off at far-flung locations to hand off cash to the deserving poor. It seems like a good idea at the time.

Immediately, problems arise. The tickets don't allow for whims; you have to plan your entire trip before leaving home. So that idea gets scrapped. Then it turns out that many of the third-world countries demand visas, or shots, and Will has no time for any of this; it has to be right now, this week, for reasons even he doesn't fully understand. Eventually, with a heavily modified itinerary, Will and Hand get off the ground, heading to Senegal with a fat stack of traveler's checks. More problems: flights are delayed, flights are cancelled. Reservations clerks are bewildered, then annoyed at the scruffy men who want to book a flight but don't know where to. Delays are everywhere, and with only a week to make it around the world, every second spent waiting in a hotel room or an airport feels even more grossly wasteful.

The giving doesn't go so well, either. Initially, Will and Hand make a rule that every impulse, however wacky, must be followed up on: taping money to livestock, leaving flowers and cash on a kitchen table. But nothing seems to go as planned; if they try to tape cash to a goat, people inevitably walk by and interrupt. Entering homes when people are away feels creepy and weird. And even when they do manage to hand off cash, it feels tainted and bad; the recipients grin slyly and vanish, as though gleeful at having pulled one over on the rich Americans, or else they stare at the money unhappily (never mind effusive thanks in foreign tongues). The idealized notion of charity - an ephemeral but profound connection between two people, generosity meeting gratitude halfway - never happens. Hand starts acting like a typical American a-hole, speaking loudly in pidgin English for no discernible reason. Nothing is the way Will had imagined it; only when he begins to examine his motivations for the trip, and what he'd expected to gain, does Will start to understand the connections between this wild goose chase and his long-delayed mourning over his lost friend.

Dave Eggers is much the same here as he was in his fictionalized memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: wildly uneven, often funny but frequently off-key, sometimes trying way too hard to be clever. Narrator Will sounds uncannily similar to Narrator Dave from A.H.W.O.S.G., full of the same vicious self-interrogation and loopy stream-of-consciousness ramblings; it's interesting, but difficult to read, and the narrative similarities make it tough to separate Will from Eggers. The character development is understated to the point of nonexistence; it's never explained how an obviously intelligent and articulate (though prone to babbling) guy has ended up installing light bulbs for a living. We bounce from childhood memories of the three friends to the present day; Will's only defining characteristic is grief, expressed in wild rants, fugue-like flashback episodes, and strange behavior. His sorrow feels genuine, but it's expressed in a rambling, haphazard fashion that renders it abstract and difficult to understand. Having said all this, do I recommend the book? Well ... yes. And Eggers is right about one thing: charity is sometimes ugly, self-important hubris dressed in well-intentioned clothing. But give it a shot. For a tighter, funnier, more compact novel I want to recommend another book: The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. Perez is a kind of anti-Eggers -- and in The Losers' Club the writing is compact, more focused (saying more in 20 pages than what seems to take Eggers 200), with short chapters and much less self-absorption -- all while covering many of the same themes of mortality and guilt -- while always being entertaining.


Rating:
Summary: a new literary hero
Review: Dave Eggers who gave us a breakthrough masterpiece in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is back with a wildly original whirlwind You Shall Know our Velocity. In the tradition of Kerouac's On the Road, Egger's tale of two friends journeying around the globe in a frenetic act of benevolence is set among a cast of perfectly imagined characters. Making us focus not on the acts but on the warm=hearted humanity of Will and Hand, despite their clumsy methods,is a rare talent of Mr. Eggers. A joy from cover to cover, You Shall Know.. is a brilliant sophomore effort.

Rating:
Summary: Inconsistency
Review: Dave Eggers is definitely a talented guy, and his ideas, particularly the one for this novel, are fantastic. But I think Dave Eggers said this fairly well of his Heartbreaking Work... that after a certain point the book gets inconsistent. That's how this book felt... starting really strong with a strong voice and purpose. But as the book continues on it begins to lose its grasp on communicating with the reader, with particular confusion generated by the interior dialogues. Perhaps Eggers was using it as a device to convey the main character's state of mind, but it hurts his ultimate purpose. I really love some of the metafictional aspects of the novel and thought they were rather clever. I wish Eggers would stick to writing short stories, since he seems to have the equivalent of writer's ADD and his words lose potency the more of them he writes.

Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted and heart-felt, but missing something.
Review: Let me begin by saying I feel ambivalent about giving this book only 3 stars. It is better than that. Unfortunately, I could not quite bring myself to give it four stars. I would have given it 3.75 stars, had I had the option. There is nothing wrong with Eggers' writing: his prosecraft, though occasionally verbose and unwieldy, often sparkles. Still, this book, despite moments of brilliance, seems to lack something.

Now, having gotten all of that out of the way: Dave Eggers is a very gifted, intelligent writer, and there are more than enough compelling moments in his novel to keep the reader, if not rapt, at least intrigued. I will not say that this book was impossible to put down: it took me an unusually long time to finish it, and some of the middle sections were a bit of a struggle. It was as if Eggers, much like Will and Hand (the traveling companions in the story), was wandering in an unfamiliar country, uncertain of where he wanted to go next. However, the story doesn't stay bogged down forever, and Eggers seems once more on solid ground near the end, when the voice abruptly changes from Will's introspective ramblings to Hand's matter-of-fact explication. (Note: I believe that this part was not in the original edition, though I can't imagine the story being complete without it). By the time Will's voice resumes the narrative, Hand has given the reader has a more complete insight as to the reasons for some of Will's actions, but has also raised other questions to which the reader can only speculate. As a literary device, sometimes this works well. This time, it was disappointing. One is left to ask, "What was that all about?"

In the end, one is inclined to forgive the turgid, muddled bits in the middle. The prose, from Hand's interlude through the end, flows as smoothly as it did in the beginning. If one were to skip over the middle one-third of the book, one would be inclined to give it at least four stars, just because Eggers' prose is so good. Sadly, at last, one is left to ask, again, "Seriously, what was that all about?"

Overall, it was good. The sad thing is, it could have been better.